In aerobic septic systems, following digestion of the waste, a grey water reservoir is used to store the grey water. State and federal regulations typically require that a minimum level of disinfectant, for instance chlorine, be present in the grey water contained in the grey water reservoir prior to discharge. For example, in Texas, a level of 1 ppm chlorine is to be maintained. Typically, solid chlorine pellets that dissolve to release chlorine are used to disinfect grey water. The incoming grey water is passed over a chlorine pellet to sufficiently chlorinate the incoming water. However, these chlorine pellets can be expensive. Such pellets can cost up to three times as much as an equivalent amount of chlorine that is commercially available in the form of household chlorine bleach.
Previous devices for adding household chlorine bleach to a grey water reservoir either added the chlorine all at once prior to dispersal or in a drip-wise fashion. Those systems that add the chlorine all at once allow the grey water to remain untreated for a long period. This can be problematic if the grey water reservoir is ever pierced, allowing the untreated grey water to seep into the ground. Furthermore, an extended period without treatment may allow the grey water to ferment, causing noxious odors.
One previously known system for use with a standard residential septic system consisted of a cap, with a pre-cut hole, screwed to the top of a commercially available household bleach bottle. The bleach bottle was then inverted over a gray water reservoir tank, inside the pumping access hatch, to let the bleach drip out over time. Such devices have numerous limitations including limited capacity, limited options for placement, difficulty in accessing the grey water reservoir to suspend the device, difficulty in refilling the device, and the lack of an ability to reversibly adjust the drip rate. However, some septic tank systems make disinfectant available to grey water by flowing grey water through a pipe in which is maintained a chlorine tablet by a chlorine tablet feeding mechanism, which pipe then drains into the grey water reservoir tank. Some such systems may not be suitable for disinfection using the prior art device, or it may be cumbersome to do so.
Thus, systems and methods that provide alternate, easier to use, and less expensive ways of adding disinfectant to the grey water of an aerobic septic system would be an improvement in the art.